Japansk matkultur

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Japanese Dishes for Wine Lovers

Chiba, Machiko & Whelehan, J.K.Kodansha, 118 pgs.

This is a book of enormous value to anyone who not only loves preparing delectable dishes but also enjoys an often more formidable mission: the quest for suitable wines that will complement them in an inspiring way.

Dr Yokio Hattori, Creator and star of Iron Chef.

Practical Japanese Cooking. Easy and Elegant

Tsuji, Shizuo & Koichiro, HataKodansha, 150 pgs.

This book presents over 100 authentic recipes, all of which are manageable even by the novice cook. Full-colour photos showcase the finished dishes as well as illustrate the steps involved in their preparation. Friendly, accessible, and inviting, Practical Japanese Cooking is revealing and inspiring to home cooks everywhere.

The Tsuji Culinary Institute Group in one of the largest institutes for culinary education in the world.

Umami. The fifth taste

Umami is a Japanese word, and the taste was originally identified by a Japanese scientist, but it has been used in cuisines around the world for centuries by people with no knowledge of the word or of dashi, the umami-rich stock used in Japanese cuisine. Examples include Russia s beet stock, made with beets and beef, Britain s Marmite and vegetable soup, and China s shang tang made with Jinhua ham. Chicken breasts, dried tomatoes, and morel mushrooms can also be used to make stock. Now that chefs have learned about umami, they are actively using it in their cuisine, and health-conscious diners have also picked up on this taste, promoting its spread to tables around the world. The ingredients of good food know no borders. But good cooking also requires communication. We Japanese chefs have been picking up hints from the cuisines of other countries, such as China and France. And non-Japanese chefs have been adopting practices from Japan, including the use of dashi and of umami. The world surely has many more umami-rich foodstuffs waiting to be discovered. As a chef, I am eager to try out diverse ingredients. And I am also eager to share Japan s splendid techniques, such as the use of umami and dashi to bring out the best from ingredients of all sorts techniques that can present wonderful new possibilities for cuisines of every genre.